Well, you know what I just noticed: Eggman's not here… how peculiar. Let's just go with 'he died a long time ago from heart failure and it's not relevant.' :D
Anyway, this is the last future chapter. Enjoy muchly!
Chapter forty something… - The Future looks Bleak Final Part
Shadow looked up at Liz, smiling down at them from the top of the rocky hillside with her army. Next to her was the younger Liz who was also smiling but more in an excited way than the evil smirk her counterpart had.
Behind him the others were also looking up at Liz waiting anxiously for her army to descend upon them.
"Shadow- you have a lot of nerve showing up here with that second rate armada." Liz called down to him.
"What have you done with Sonic?" Shadow demanded.
"He's inside waiting for Tails and I to bring him back to the past… however let's not go into details of his welfare." Liz said simply, "I'm curious, where is that little orange rat?"
"HEY!"
Shadow glared back at the Tails behind him then looked back up at Liz, "Why don't you stop stalling?" he shouted.
Liz's smile broadened, "Very well. Let's see how you fare against a real army." She signaled to Kaute behind her and her army charged down the hill to face the rebels.
Akeii strode quickly towards the front entrance and reached for the handle. However a hand reached out and grabbed his before he could open the door, "Akeii, think about this for a moment!" Hannah cried, "If we just help Tails then maybe he'll really be able to stop all this madness!"
Akeii glared up at the hedgehog, "And if he can't then we'll be eaten alive by mosquitoes- or worse! Liz will unimagine us!"
Hannah flinched at the thought, "That does sound bad but… Tails must know what he's doing! If Liz doesn't know that he's in the castle then that means that sooner or later you're just going to give up and do what he asked in the first place otherwise she'd have sent troops in to stop him from tampering with her computer!"
Akeii blinked twice trying to understand Hannah's reasoning, "So… you're saying that I'm just going to end up helping in the end so I shouldn't even fight it?" he asked.
"Exactly!" Hannah said, "So don't bother!"
Akeii groaned, "I hate Tails for making that damn time machine…" he mumbled, "Alright, I'll do it."
Hannah smiled and let go of Akeii's hand and the pair went out the door and found themselves on top of the hill where Liz and Mini Liz were watching the massacre below them.
Akeii pulled Hannah off to the side where they hid behind a large rock jutting out of the ground. There they waited as the battle raged on below them.
Shadow whipped around and gunned down a cashier descending upon him. The boy fell lifeless to the blood-soaked dirt. As he did Shadow noticed Tails in the corner of his eye. He was in the midst of a fierce duel with Kaute. Shadow ran over to help but found himself blocked by the Science Teacher.
She raised her sword to his face, "Maybe now I can finally see how you're put together." She said with a smile as she pulled back the sword to strike.
Shadow acted quickly; he grabbed a katana from the fallen cashier and blocked her attack. Soon he found himself in the middle of a fight just as Tails was.
However Tails wasn't as well off as Shadow. His weapon had been knocked out his hands and Kaute was now chasing him through the mob of battling soldiers.
Then Tails tripped over a fallen soldier and found himself face down in the mud. Instinctively he rolled over and tried to grab the soldier's weapon to protect himself, but before he could Kaute was on him.
The cashier pulled back and drove his katana straight through the fox. Tails screamed in pain and grasped at the blade piercing his chest but Kaute ripped the sword from his torso, spraying blood everywhere. Tails' eyes flickered and he fell limp against the ground.
Kaute let out a victorious cackle and left to continue the fight. He came upon Amy and Rouge destroying a horde of the Science Teacher's robots.
He watched for a moment before he heard a strange buzzing noise. "Crap…" he mumbled looking back up at the castle. A swarm of mosquitoes had been released and was flying towards the battle.
Amy and Rouge looked up too and spotted the mosquitoes. They both pulled bug spray out of their jackets. The swarm flew down and surrounded the soldiers but then flew back up again as they all began to spray. Then it split up and flew in different directions as smaller flocks.
One flew towards Amy and Rouge who began to spray but after a moment their cans stopped. Rouge shook hers violently swearing angrily, "Amy! We're out of bug spray!" she screamed.
Kaute turned away as he heard the pair screaming in pain. It was never fun to watch the mosquitoes do their job.
Liz had her hands folded across her chest uncomfortably as though she was just longing to join the bloodshed below them but didn't want to leave Mini Liz alone. Finally she looked to her younger self, "Stay up here." She demanded. Then she drew her sword and charged down the hill towards the battle.
Akeii and Hannah came out from behind their hiding place and crept up behind Mini Liz who was watching the fight with interest. Akeii drew his sword and flipped it around so he was holding the blade. He pulled it back and slammed the gold handle against Mini Liz's skull. She cried out and collapsed.
Akeii put his sword away and nursed his hand where the blade had cut into it. Hannah bent down and grabbed one of Mini Liz's arms, "Help me bring her back to that rock so we can hide her!" she said.
Akeii grabbed her other arm and the pair began to drag her towards the castle.
Shadow pulled back from his fight with Science Teacher and looked up at the castle. Liz was gone but he noticed Akeii and Hannah bent over something. He stared for a moment and then realized it was the younger Liz!
He turned just in time to see Science Teacher descending upon him again. Then he realized: why was he fighting her with a sword. He drew his gun and fired!
Science Teacher fell to her knees grasping at her heart. She glared up at the hedgehog and opened her mouth to say something but then she collapsed.
Shadow looked around and finally spotted Liz firing randomly at soldiers, making no distinction between her own and theirs and laughing madly. She started to turn to look at the castle.
Shadow knew he couldn't let her see Akeii and Hannah so, forgetting that he was holding a gun and a sword that he could have used against her, he jumped and tackled her into the mud.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Liz screamed throwing him off, "What do you think that sword is for you dumbass!"
Tails blew the hinges off the metal door in front of them and ran through the now open doorway. Sonic followed him into a dark room. "Where are we?" he asked.
"This is Liz's room." Tails responded.
"ARE YOU CRAZY?" Sonic shouted, "Do you have any idea what kind of horrible traps she must've set up in here?"
"Yes I do. Which reminds me, don't touch the light switch." Tails said cautiously making his way across the room, "Don't step anywhere that I don't. Come on!"
Sonic followed Tails across the dark room and they finally made it to the opposite end. Tails felt along the wall anxiously, "It must be here somewhere… Ah, here it is!" he pulled down a picture on the wall and pulled down on a wire and a computer pulled out of the wall. The screen flickered to life and lit up the room.
"How do you know where all this stuff is?" Sonic demanded.
"Someone told me." Tails said, taking hold of the mouse, "So, how are we going to destroy all Liz's files?"
"Couldn't we just destroy the computer?" Sonic mumbled.
Tails paused, "Good idea!" He lifted the computer from the table and threw it on the ground where it shattered!
Sonic stared down at the computer's fragments, "I was kidding!" he said.
"Too late now. Come on! Let's get out of here!"
Tails and Sonic made their way out of the room and ran down the hall. Finally they arrived at the outside exit. They went out and found Akeii and Hannah crouched behind a nearby rock with young Liz lying near them, unconscious.
"Good work guys!" Tails said giving them a thumbs up and crouching nearby.
"I'd like to say 'no problem' but it wasn't." Akeii mumbled.
"Now what?" Sonic said joining their hiding place.
Tails glanced around, "He said he'd be here by the time we finished…" he muttered.
"Who is this mysterious guy anyway?" Sonic demanded.
Liz stood over Shadow with her gun aimed at his forehead, "You were an admirable adversary, Shadow." She said with a grin, "I'm surprised you'd throw your life away like this."
She pulled down on the trigger but suddenly something knocked against her hand and the bullet flew off into the distance. She turned to see who had interfered with her shot and her eyes became wide.
"No! Impossible!" she cried.
Shadow looked up and his mouth dropped open, "S-Sonic?" he demanded.
The fighting around them slowly ground to a halt as all eyes were on the blue hedgehog standing before them. He was glaring at Liz tossing a rock up and down in his hand. Suddenly he threw it at Liz and it bounced off her forehead, "Sorry, I've just always wanted to do that." He said with a smile.
She blinked in surprise and her surprise became anger, "How the hell are you alive? You were dead! I saw you being buried!" she screamed.
"That Tails is a genius." Sonic said, "I wasn't dead- I was in a medically induced coma. That wasn't a coffin it was a sort of life support machine, if you will."
"Why did he let everyone think you were dead?" Shadow asked.
"Well, if Liz here thought I was alive she would have come after me and killed me for real." He responded, "Of course I'd have come back sooner if Tails hadn't had his memory wiped and I hadn't had to dig myself out when I woke up…"
"Well it was foolish of you to reveal yourself. You don't stand a chance against me!" Liz said raising her hand to point at him, "Let's see you try to defeat me as a rodent…"
There was a pause and Liz's face grew pale, "W-what's going on?" she demanded, "Why can't I…?"
Sonic smiled, "Tails and I already planned this out. Your SEGA ownership has been destroyed! You don't have any power over us anymore." He said triumphantly.
As Sonic said this Liz's soldiers all dropped their guns and screamed in delight, "WHAT?" Liz cried, "Don't you dare side against me!"
"It's useless Liz. Your reign of terror is over." Sonic said.
You know how at the end of some stories there's this really lame thing where everybody's alive and they all live happily ever after…? Unfortunately that's the case.
Amy and Rouge handcuffed Liz and led her into the rebel ships. "THIS ISN'T OVER HEDGEHOG!" She screamed as the doors closed and the craft took off.
Tails and the younger Sonic came out down the hill and approached Sonic, "So… I'm not dead?" young Sonic asked.
"No, you're not." Sonic assured him, then he took him by the shoulder and led him off, "Let me enlighten you about your future-"
Tails looked up at Shadow, "So, what are you guys going to do with Liz?" he asked.
As he asked this Hannah and Akeii finally came out from their hiding place, "Is it safe?" Akeii called.
Tails looked back, "Yeah. Liz is gone." He said.
The pair came down the hillside and approached Tails and Shadow, "Well, I'm not sure what we'll do: we can't kill her." Shadow said in response to Tails' question.
"Why not?" Tails asked, "After all she's done doesn't that seem like a just punishment?"
"If you kill Liz then we would disappear." Akeii said, "And this whole story would just implode too."
"So, I guess she just be locked away for a while till we figure out something else we can do to punish her." Shadow said.
Then Akeii grabbed Tails' hand and pulled him away, "Come on kid, let's go find Sonic and get you and that mini Liz back to the past."
"What's the rush?" Tails asked.
"Nothing. I just thought Hannah and Shadow could use a minute alone." Akeii said with a wink.
Tails paused in thought then smiled.
Hannah went up to Shadow meekly, "Hey…" she said staring at her feet, "I… I'm sorry about before when I kinda… shot… you."
Shadow smiled kindly, "I know. You were just following orders. There was nothing you could do."
Hannah looked up into Shadow's eyes and smiled too, "I'm glad you understand." She said, "I hope we can still be friends despite all this."
Shadow let out a small laugh, "I think we'll manage." Then he bent down and pressed his lips against hers in a passionate kiss. They remained this way for a moment before someone in the distance whistled. Shadow spun around and saw the pair of Sonics laughing as they pointed at the black hedgehogs.
Shadow pulled out a knife and made to go after them but Hannah pulled him back, "Forget about them." She said as she kissed him again.
Tails approached Sonic and pulled on his arm, "Come on. We have to get back to the past before Liz wakes up." He said. Sonic wiped away his tears of laughter and smiled at the kitsune, "Alright." He said. Then he looked to his older self, "Thanks for all the warnings. I would have never figured out all that by myself."
"No problem. It's mutually helpful to both of us." He said with a wink, "You'd better get going."
Sonic smiled and ran up the hillside with Tails where Liz had begun to stir. She sat up and rubbed her head, "W-where am I?" she mumbled.
Tails pulled out the mini time traveler and pressed a few buttons and the year 1963 appeared on the small screen, "Look's like we're headed to the sixties to find Shadow." He said, "Hold on guys!"
He pressed a button and in a bright flash all three were gone.
Oh, I just realized that I didn't kill Knuckles... darn I forgot. Oh well, maybe he just chickened out and ran off.